Daily Deal Sites Boost High Street Sales By £300 Million

Daily deal websites have helped boost high street retail by over £300 million according to a new study that also claims the sites can help sell off aging stock.

This completely counteracts the usual statements made by retailers, who often say that the Internet is negatively impacting their business. While it seems likely that some of the £300 million being spent as part of the deals would have ended up in the tills anyway, the fact that so many people utilise these sites and their offers shows that it's having an impact.

Not all is rosy with deal sites however, with certain ones like Groupon being targeted by the Office of Fair Trading for offering deals for breast augmentation and similar products with a time limit on application. There were in total over 50 individual breaches of advertising codes in 2011 as well, prompting the site into changing some of its practices in the future - though the negative ripples of public opinion could last for a while.

Despite this though, retailers continue to sign up. The Telegraph has it that Tesco is now on-board, having been offering its own points discount scheme for a while, along with several offers such as spend £40, get £5 off.